Contractor, audit thyself

In the last few decades, a huge amount of the federal government’s work has been outsourced to contractors. In some agencies, the duties that includes…oversight of government contracts. Wait, that’s not how it’s supposed to work!

Federal economic stimulus programs have only made the situation worse. Where does all that money go? Contractors. Reports Marketplace:

Now, add another $275 billion in stimulus contracts and monitoring all of them for waste and fraud is almost impossible, says Don Kettl, dean of the school of public policy at the University of Maryland.

Don Kettl: We’ve so vastly increased the amount of spending in such a short time, government employees are really struggling to keep up with the oversight burdens that have come along with the recovery program.